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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24475633">reaching the south</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/theriveroflight/pseuds/theriveroflight'>theriveroflight</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>tonight my heart is sad [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Miraculous Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aromantic Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Deception, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Internalized Arophobia, Ladynoir | Adrien Agreste as Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng as Ladybug, Loss of Trust, Not Beta Read, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Punching, Trust</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 02:41:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,142</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24475633</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/theriveroflight/pseuds/theriveroflight</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It is tomorrow, and it is rapidly approaching night.</p><p>(Or: Ladybug and Chat Noir get to talk.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir &amp; Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>tonight my heart is sad [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1757152</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Bad Things Happen Bingo</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>reaching the south</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>more aro!adrien wooooow</p><p>A little early (depending on where you live), but happy pride month to all of the fellow aros out there in this fandom! I've had an early draft of this going since I published "like a stricken bird."</p><p>And then I also planned out something in this fic and I was like: this applies to *something* on my Bad Things Happen Bingo card, right? Yep. "Accidentally Hurt by Friend."</p><p>Warnings: a minor panic attack, some implied internalized aphobia, someone gets punched in the face</p><p>Title modified from same text as previous installment.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>
    <span>Ladybug refrained from pulling herself up, pulling the string down to keep her rooted to the ground. “Tomorrow night, Chat.” She let go of the tension, letting herself catch up to where she had hooked it.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“See you then!” he called as he departed in the opposite direction.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Why had she agreed?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The last time she agreed to go out with Chat (or -- just said </span>
  <em>
    <span>maybe, </span>
  </em>
  <span>it hadn’t been for sure), it had been a romantic picnic date setup for the two of them, and she couldn’t handle that. And their dynamic was stilted for a while after that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But she still trusts him. And it’s been a long time since then. People can change, and feelings can shift. She still trusts him to not violate her boundaries after she’s established them. Chat Noir is her partner. If she can’t trust him...who else is she supposed to trust?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But it’s rapidly approaching the time that she set herself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She wonders -- what exactly would Chat interpret as night?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her first instinct is to go: </span>
  <em>
    <span>he would say right at sundown, because he would want to see me as soon as possible.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>But they both have other lives outside of this. She knows that Chat would try and get away as soon as possible, but he still has a life and a family (though it doesn’t seem like a very good one).</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looks out the window at the setting sun. “Night” was coming soon, and she hadn’t even eaten dinner yet. After dinner, she would have enough free time to go see Chat, whatever he wanted from her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Marinette! Dinner!” she hears her mom call from below.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well. Perfect timing. She’ll leave right after dinner.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She heads down to eat. When dessert comes out, she’s too full to eat - which isn’t a lie, her stomach keeps tossing with nervousness and she barely managed to get her entire meal down. And Marinette has an overall sense of a need to </span>
  <em>
    <span>get out.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She heads back up to her room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tikki, spots on.” The transformation, after all this time, still brings a rush of energy with it, but it doesn’t feel like the same kind of energy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Either way, Marinette is too preoccupied to think about that slight shift.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Is it better for her to be there first and have to wait? Think about what Chat might have to say to her?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Or is it better if Chat is already there for them to talk it out straight away?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She touches down near the statue. Despite all the light pollution from the city around them, she can still see Chat’s night vision eyes glowing green in the darkness.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’s looking up at the statue, the past versions of themselves forever represented in bronze. They’ve come so far, and yet it feels like they’ve barely made any progress at all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She takes a deep breath and moves to approach him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, Ladybug. I saw you when you landed - the red stands out.” He doesn’t look towards her, he’s still gazing up at the statue, but she smiles anyways.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your eyes glow at night,” she responds, leaning against the podium the statue is mounted on so that if Chat turns his head to face her, she’ll be right next to him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Perks of night vision,” he jokes. “But I didn’t call you to talk about this. I chose here because it’s a representative of our past, of the way things were. Because they aren’t going to be the same again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s going on, Chat?” Why aren’t things going to remain the same? And why is that a bad thing? Change is good, right?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m going to preface this by apologizing. I’m sorry.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For what?” The way he’s acting makes it hard for her to think clearly, she feels a rising panic and then she closes her eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In. 1-2-3-4. Hold. 1-2-3-4. Out. 1-2-3-4.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ve been lying to you and everyone else around us all along about loving you and I’m aromantic.” His words come out in a flurry, and she just hears “been lying to you all along” and punches him in the face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It isn’t until after she’s already done it and he’s rubbing his chin that she realizes that </span>
  <em>
    <span>oh my gosh, he just came out to her and </span>
  </em>
  <span>that </span>
  <em>
    <span>was how she treated him???</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“I am so sorry about that, oh my gosh, are you okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I deserved it.” He smiles, but it doesn’t look genuine.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You absolutely </span>
  <em>
    <span>did not, </span>
  </em>
  <span>what are you talking about? You don’t deserve to get punished for coming out. Understand?” She grabs his shoulders. “You shouldn’t be punished for being yourself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, yeah, sure.” He still doesn’t look like he really believes it, but she’ll keep saying it - for as long as she has to. “It’s not because of that, it was because of the whole ‘lying about being attracted to you.’”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Yeah. That’s still a thing. She kind of understands. Marinette’s not aro, but she understands why someone who </span>
  <em>
    <span>is </span>
  </em>
  <span>would fake a crush as a defense mechanism against the world. It stings a little, because she’s always thought that Chat was the one person that she could trust to not lie to her. Trust. That’s why she agreed to meet him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And he’s trusting her, in turn, with his secret.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not happy about it.” A simple start. “But I think I can understand why you would choose to do it. You were afraid. Thank you for trusting me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I still am afraid. That hasn’t changed. I’m choosing to act in spite of my fear.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And that makes you brave, kitty.” She looks up at him. “I still don’t know if I can trust you after this. But I’ll learn to trust you again as long as I don’t have another reason not to. I’m also mad that society has led you to believe that you need to fake loving me in order to be accepted.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She pauses.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They </span>
  <em>
    <span>would </span>
  </em>
  <span>accept you. With or without that. You’re one of their saviours, Chat.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He trembles a little, tearing up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She brings him into an embrace. “It’s okay.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They’re going to be okay. They can work past this, as friends and partners. There’s nothing between them that could break their friendship. And she doesn’t mind the play-flirting, either, and now they can both relax into the fact that it’s just play.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She already said it. She’ll learn to trust him again. The foundation is already there, but he lied. She can maybe forgive him and understand why; she can definitely support him through the process of not being afraid of his identity.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There’s a long way ahead of them. They’ve barely started this. But being here, talking to each other - it feels like a step forward.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Just one step, on the journey stretching out in front of them.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Follow me online:<br/>alto-tenure - main Tumblr<br/>beunforgtten - writng Tumblr<br/>the-river-of-light - visual art Tumblr<br/>riiveroflight - Twitter</p><p>There might be more aro!Adrien content from me coming out. You never know. It might not necessarily be in this universe but...</p></blockquote></div></div>
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